Pattern mechanism for knitting machines



March 20, 1962 Filed June 11, 1959 FREGEOLLE 7 3,025,688 PATTERN MECHANISM FOR KNITTING MACHINES 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 Q 8 a mm INVENTOR. OscA R F'KEGEOL'LE.

ATTORNEY v March 20, 1962 o. FRE GEOLLE 3,025,688

I PATTERN MECHANISM FOR KNITTING MACHINES Filed June 11, 1959 5 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTOR. OSCAR FkssoLLs.

A TTORNEV 0. FREGEOLLE PATTERN MECHANISM FOR KNITTING MACHINES March 20, 1962 5 Sheets-Sheet 5' Filed June 11, 1959 INVENTOR. /OSCAR FREGEOLLE.

A TTORNE Y and sell these as the half sizes.

Unite This invention relates to a pattern chain control mechanism for knitting machines, and, in partciular, to a device for circular knitting machines which makes it possible selectively to vary the speed of operation of such a pattern chain in any portion or portions of its travel throughout its cycle.

It is the general object of the invention to provide control means for the pattern chain in single or multiple feed hosiery knitting machines efiective to permit further subdivisions in the number of courses to be knitted between any given pair of control lugs in the pattern chain in addition to those obtainable merely by adding or removing links of the chain.

More specifically, it is an object of the invention to provide a simple mechanism whereby in the foot portion of a stocking, for example, racking of the pattern chain ratchet may be speeded up to three times its normal rate, so that the knitting of /3 or /2 sizes is thereby made possible, whereas up to the present time changes could be made only in full sizes.

It is a further object to provide speed changing means for the pattern chain which is controlled by the chain itself.

In the well known circular knitting machines of the Hemphill type, for example, the S.C.P. or S.C.O.P. solid color pattern knitting machines, the pattern chain sprocket is fixed to a pattern ratchet wheel having three teeth between each pair of sprocket teeth or between adjacent links on the chain. Each movement forward of the pattern pawl in circular knitting corresponds to four courses of knitting during which that pawl moves the ratchet wheel forward one tooth. Therefore, each link is equivalent to twelve courses of knitting or approximately one inch of fabric in a course gauge machine, and the addition or removal of links from the pattern chain results in a full size change in the length of knitted fabric. Since one-half foot sizes could not be knit on these machines, it has been customary in the trade to knit the next full size and to board and finish as near as practicable Such a practice, of course, results in a waste and expense in the additional cost for the extra yarn used as well as a time loss to knit the extra half size. Reference may be had to United States Patent No. 993,443 for a complete description of one type of machine to which the present invention may be applied.

According to this invention, a mechanism has been devised whereby one-third or one-half sizes may be knitted so as to overcome the above disadvantages. A cam controlled means has been provided whereby instead of a single tooth movement being imparted to the pattern ratchet wheel, moves in groups of two or three teeth are made. In the case where the pattern pawl moves its ratchet a distance equal to three teeth or a full chain link per move, this means that only four courses are knitted per link instead of twelve, or that the sizes may be cut in thirds. Similarly, where the ratchet wheel is moved a distance equal to two teeth with each move of the pawl, onehalf sizes may be knitted.

Further objects and advantages will be evident by reference to the description and drawings, wherein:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a portion of the pattern control mechanism of a knitting machine with some States Patent of the usual pattern drums omitted therefrom in order to clearly illustrate the invention;

FIG. 2 is a front elevational view of the main pattern shaft of the knitting machine;

FIG. 3 is a side elevational view as seen from the right side of the machine and illustrating the extremes of movement of the parts in a single kick or single tooth movement of the pattern ratchet Wheel; and

FIG. 4 is a view similar to FIG. 3 illustrating a multiple kick or three tooth movement.

In FIG. 1 the knitting machine frame is indicated generally by the arrow 10 and includes left and right hand sides 11 and 12, respectively. Mounted forwardly in said frame is a pattern shaft 13 adapted to be advanced periodically clockwise in the direction of the arrow by means to be described. This shaft makes one complete revolution during the production of each stocking or other piece of knitted work. A sprocket wheel 14 having teeth 15 evenly disposed along the outer circumference thereof is affixed to a ratchet wheel 16 which has three times as many teeth 17 on its outer circumference as the sprocket wheel. The sprocket and ratchet wheels are freely rotatable in unison on the pattern shaft except as affected by a friction brake means (not shown) working on the inside of the rim of the pattern wheel and on the right hand side thereof. An endless pattern chain 18 comprised of a plurality of easily separable links is carried by the sprocket wheel each tooth of which is insertable in a centrally located opening in the respective links. Certain of the links, such as those at 19, are so-called plain links and others 20 have lugs 21 which aifect other mechanism to cause rotation of the pattern shaft to a predetermined extent and in a manner later described.

The apparatus thus far described is well known and is already present on circular knitting machines such as those shown in United States Patents 933,443 or 2,217,- 022 to which reference may be had for a complete description of the entire knitting machine, which his not necessary to repeat for the purposes of this invention.

The mechanism for selectively varying the extent of the intermittent movement of the pattern ratchet wheel, its attached sprocket wheel and the pattern chain will now be set forth. For purposes of simplicity the description will be limited to one and three kick moves of the pattern ratchet wheel, that is, moving the wheel a single tooth at a time or in increments of three teeth. Afiixed at any convenient position on the pattern shaft is a cam disc 22 having camming surfaces 23 and 24, the latter of which in this particular instance extends for an angular distance of about 35 degrees. Rearwardly of the pattern shaft and parallel thereto a quadrant shaft 25 is mounted in suitable hearings in the frame sides and has fixed thereon a quadrant gear (not shown) which reciprocates through an arc of about degrees forwardly and rearwardly once per four revolutions of the knitting cylinder in known manner. A chain racking cam 26 having a camming surface 27 is secured to the quadrant shaft at a position directly behind the pattern ratchet and sprocket Wheels. Immediately adjacent that cam is a shield member 28 freely rotatable on the quadrant shaft and restrained from lateral movement on the shaft by a collar 29. The shield has a stepped outer edge including a surface 30 further removed from the quadrant shaft than a second surface 31. An adjustable connecting link 32 is connected at one end to the shield at 33- and at its other end is pivoted to the upper end of a lever 34 which is fixed to a stud 35 mounted in hearings on brackets 36 and 37 which are attached to the left side and to the front of the frame, respectively. A cam follower 38 is fixed to the stud in position to be influenced by the two-position cam and is biased in the direction of the cam by a spring 39.

An arm 40 is pivotally mounted intermediate its ends at 4 1 to the right side of the frame somewhat above and rearwardly of the quadrant shaft. A roller member 42 is supported on the lower end of the arm and is of sufficient length to be engaged by either or both the shield and the racking cam. A pawl 4-3 is loosely mounted to the upper end of the arm and a spring 44 tends to maintain engagement between the roller and the shield or the racking cam depending upon the relative positions thereof.

As seen in FIG. 2 a main ratchet wheel 45 is secured to the pattern shaft outwardly of the right hand frame side. A main ratchet pawl 46 is fixed to the quadrant shaft and moves forwardly in unison with the quadrant in continuous reciprocation. A main ratchet plate 47 is loosely mounted on the pattern shaft immediately to the left of the main ratchet wheel and is selectively oscillatable to permit or prevent ratcheting of the main wheel depending upon the plate position with respect to the pawl. Movement of the plate is controlled by means of a lug pawl 48 which is lifted upon coming in contact with the pattern chain lugs 21 thereby afi'ecting connecting means 49 pivoted to the ratchet plate. Normally, the plate is in a position which prevents ratcheting but when the lug pawl is raised by a lug, the plate is moved to a position away from the main pawl and the latter rotates the ratchet wheel and pattern shaft a predetermined angular extent depending upon the height of the lug which affects the extent of rotation of the ratchet plate. A stop motion wheel 50 acts upon a shipper lever (not shown) to turn off the machine. A main or clutch drum is also fixed to the pattern shaft as well as disc cams 51, 52 and 53. Thus, the main pawl affects a movement of all drums on the pattern shaft except the pattern chain and its ratchet wheel.

The manner in which a single kick or tooth movement of the pattern ratchet is achieved is shown in FIG. 3. Single kick is preferably utilized in the knitting of all portions of a stocking except the foot. The follower 38 is on the lower surface of the cam disc and the shield is in the position shown in FIG. 2 to maintain a radius between the roller and quadrant shaft which is greater than it otherwise would be to render ineffective a portion of the cam surface 27 as the cam 26 moves from dotted line position A to solid line position B since the radius of surface 39 is greater than that portion of the cam surface. Part of the surface 27, however, has a radius greater than surface 30 and is effective to impart a single kick move to the pattern ratchet each time the racking cam moves from A to B.

A three kick move takes place in the manner shown in FIG. 4. This action is initiated as a lug on a particular chain link causes the lug pawl to be raised, which takes place at the completion of the heel of the stocking and just as knitting of the foot portion is begun. This causes rotation of the ratchet plate to enable the main pawl to engage the main ratchet to rotate it about 30 degrees at the same time rotating the pattern shaft and the two-position disc cam the same amount and to raise the follower 38 upon the cam surface 24. The lever 34 is moved forward in the same direction as the follower to lower the shield to the position shown in FIG. 4. Release of the shield from engagement with the roller takes place after the racking cam has begun to move rearwardly to withdraw the roller from engagement with the shield. The spring 44 now brings the roller 12 into engagement with a portion of the racking cam surface which was previously rendered ineffective and the same movement of the quadrant shaft and thus of the cam 26 from dotted line position C to solid line position D results in an elongated movement of the pattern pawl for a distance suificient to move the ratchet three teeth at a time instead of the previous one. This three kick movement continues until a second lug on the pattern chain comes into position to cause further rotation of the pat tern shaft to permit the follower 38 to be released from the surface 24.

In this manner, since the pattern chain in the foot portion is moving a full link with each cycle of the quadrant shaft instead of one-third of a link as normally, the cylinder is knitting only four courses per link instead of twelve. Therefore, by adding or removing chain links, sizes can be controlled down to thirds instead of the full sizes only.

At the completion of the knitting of a stocking and closing of the toe on a looper or other machine, the stocking is customarily boarded. Stockings are measured in half and whole sizes which correspond to the size in inches of the feet for which they are made. Up to the present time, since only full sizes could be knitted, the boarding process would effect shrinkage of a full size somewhat to obtain the next lower half size. This, of course, amounts to a substantial waste of yarn.

By means of this invention as explained above making possible the knitting of one-third sizes, it is thereby possible to knit much closer to the half sizes, and much less shrinkage is required to obtain the half sizes. For example, a size ten and one-third could be knitted and this could be stretched without difficulty in the boarding process to a size ten and one-half, or a knitted size ten and two-thirds could be shrunk to a size ten and one-half.

An important advantage of the invention is the elimination of the need for a double pattern chain, that is, one which knitted two stockings per revolution thereof. In chains of this type it has been very difficult, if not impossible to make changes in sizes in both halves of the chain at the same time due to the fact that when one of the halves was in position to be readily changed in length in the foot portion, that portion of the other half of the chain was inaccessible. Due to the added links in the foot portion under the present invention, the double chain can be shortened, eliminating one of the halves, so that one stocking is knitted on each revolution of the chain.

A further advantage has been achieved according to the invention in the elimination of a very close movement between the pattern chain pawl and the main ratchet pawl, both of which reached a full throw position at substantially the same instant. A dwell on the chain racking cam now provides a substantial spacing in the two movements so that adjustments may be more easily made.

The invention permits the use of a pattern chain of minimum length while making it possible selectively to take a long or a short move on the chain. It is to be understood that the long moves may be used in the leg or any portion of the stocking as desired.

While one embodiment of the invention has been disclosed, it is to be understood that the inventive concept may be carried out in a number of ways. This invention is, therefore, not to be limited to the precise details described, but is intended to embrace all variations and modifications thereof falling within the spirit of the invention and the scope of the claims.

I claim:

1. For a circular knitting machine, an endless pattern chain, a rotatable sprocket for advancing said chain, a ratchet wheel secured to said sprocket, pawl means for intermittently advancing said ratchet wheel, cam means for controlling oscillation of said pawl means, a shield member immediately adjacent said cam means and adapted to vary the extent of oscillation of said pawl means by said cam means, and further means for automatically selectively positioning said shield member to control the extent of advancement of said ratchet wheel by said pawl means.

2. For a circular knitting machine, an endless pattern chain, a rotatable sprocket for advancing said chain, a ratchet wheel secured to said sprocket, pawl means having a variable stroke for intermittently advancing said ratchet wheel, cam means for controlling movement of said pawl means, a selectively operable shield means adjacent said cam means eifective to vary said stroke length of said pawl means, and a further cam means movable upon an indication from said pattern chain for controlling said shield means.

3. For a circular knitting machine, a pattern chain, a rotatable sprocket for said chain, ratchet means secured to said sprocket, pawl means operable through movements of at least two diiferent extents for intermittently advancing said ratchet means, and means selectively operable for governing the extent of movement of said pawl means which comprises cam means having an active surface effective to impart maximum movement to said pawl means, and further means for rendering ineffective a portion of said surface which comprises a shield adjacent said cam means and movable to two positions as determined by a second cam means, said second cam 15 2,587,816

means being advanced upon indications received from said pattern chain.

4. The mechanism of claim 1 wherein said cam means is continuously oscillatable and wherein said shield memher is movable between active and inactive positions.

5. The mechanism of claim 1 wherein said further means comprises an intermittently rotatable cam.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,238,820 Page Apr. 15, 1941 2,243,777 Page May 27, 1941 2,453,242 Marsh Nov. 9, 1948 2,474,925 Williams et a1 July 5, 1949 Bristow Mar. 4, 1952 

